Ghana Spends Too Little on Its Youngest Children, UNICEF Report Warns

Children between the ages of zero and five receive just 13 percent of public spending on children in Ghana, despite accounting for roughly one-third of the country’s child population — a misallocation that a new UNICEF report says is entrenching inequality and costing lives.

The findings, released on Wednesday, paint a picture of a country that has made impressive strides in immunisation coverage — at 95 percent, well above the sub-Saharan African average of 74 percent — and pre-primary enrolment, which stands at 88.1 percent, among the highest on the continent. Yet these achievements mask deeper failures in nutrition, child protection, and poverty reduction that targeted early-years spending could address.

Where the Money Goes

Ghana’s child-related public expenditure is heavily skewed toward education, which absorbed 3.1 percent of GDP in 2023. Social protection, by contrast, received just 0.23 percent of GDP, health roughly 2 percent, and child protection a negligible 0.03 percent. The imbalance means that children who are too young for school — the very demographic where returns on investment are highest — are effectively invisible in the national budget.

“If you don’t have healthcare systems, some children will be too sick to go to school,” said Dominic Richardson, the report’s lead researcher. “When you don’t have child protection, more children end up in child labour.”

Ghana has taken some steps in the right direction. The country recently showcased its social protection reforms at a continental knowledge exchange in Ethiopia, presenting its progress on welfare programmes to an international audience. But the UNICEF data suggests that the gains are concentrated in older age groups and institutional structures, not in the daily lives of infants and toddlers.

A Case for Rebalancing

UNICEF estimates that increasing and rebalancing total child-related spending to about 7.2 percent of GDP could deliver transformative results. Within three years, the report argues, Ghana could eliminate child poverty, prevent up to 18,000 premature child deaths annually, reduce stunting rates significantly, and achieve near-universal birth registration.

The numbers are striking not because they are aspirational but because they are achievable. Ghana’s high immunisation rates prove that well-funded, targeted interventions can produce rapid improvements. The missing piece is political will to redirect resources toward the zero-to-five window, when malnutrition, neglect, and lack of stimulation do their most lasting damage.

From Policy to Practice

The government recently approved an Early Childhood Care and Development (ECCD) Policy, a framework that UNICEF has urged the authorities to implement without delay. The report also recommends introducing a universal child benefit scheme — a direct cash transfer to families with young children that could lift the most vulnerable out of poverty while strengthening the social protection net.

Whether these recommendations translate into budget lines will depend on the 2027 national budget, expected in November. For now, Ghana’s youngest citizens remain the ones least served by the state that is meant to protect them.

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